let's talk to larry sabato, also known as larry the political science guy. good morning to you [ laughter ] good morning. thank you very much for equating me with larry the cable guy. that's an honor. >> steve: you bet you. 'cause you get er done when it comes to politics. we'll get into the specifics about the number of statistics both of them used, but you grade a lot of papers. how would you grade mitt romney last night? >> i gave him a full a and i gave obama a c minus and it was kind of a gift. you know, i hate to admit it, but i go all the way back to the 1960 debate, steve. this was the biggest gaffe between an incumbent president's performance and a challenger's performance ever. for those who think 1980 was a bigger gaffe, i i would invite them to go back and see that debate. yes, there was a big gaffe between eggen and carter, but it wasn't this big. >> steve: you're making it sound quite historic. in fact, "wall street journal" says this is the best debate effort by a republican nominee since reagan back in 1980, which would have been 32 years fro